Effective: 2022-05-01

Course Description

The course outline below was developed as part of a statewide standardization process.

General Course Purpose

PHY 243 is the third and last semester of calculus-based University Physics. It covers the advances made in physics during the first half of the twentieth century that led to revolutionary paradigm shifts in the understanding of nature; these advances continue to drive technologies used today.

Course Prerequisites/Corequisites

Prerequisites: PHY 242 with a grade of C or better or departmental approval.

Course Objectives

• The Foundations of Modern Physics
• State phenomena that cannot be explained by classical physics, thus motivating the need for a new theory.
• Establish experimental evidence by which the existence of atoms and their properties is known.
• The Special Theory of Relativity
• Explain and apply the fundamental concepts of event and reference frame.
• Explain how the principle of relativity leads to the relativity of simultaneity and length and thus to time dilation and length contraction.
• Use the Lorentz transformations of position and velocity.
• Define and calculate relativistic energy and momentum.
• Recognize the significance of Einstein's famous equation E = mc2.
• Photons: Light Waves Behaving as Particles
• Explain the photoelectric effect experiment and its implications.
• Explain and apply the photon model of light.
• Wave Properties of Matter
• State the evidence for matter waves and the de Broglie wavelength.
• Explain why the de Broglie standing wave of a confined particle requires energy quantization.
• Explain and apply Bohr's stationary-state model of the atom.
• Use the Bohr model to explain discrete spectra and the observed differences between absorption and emission spectra.
• Apply Bohr's model of the hydrogen atom to explain its properties.
• Quantum Mechanics
• Define the wave function as the descriptor of particles in quantum mechanics.
• Explain probabilistic interpretation of the wave function.
• Explain and apply the idea of normalization.
• Recognize the limitations on knowledge imposed by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle
• Define the Schrodinger equation as the "law" of quantum mechanics.
• Recognize that solutions of the Schrodinger equation give the allowed energies and wave functions for a physical situation that is modeled by the potential energy function U(x).
• Interpret wave functions and energy levels.
• Explain quantum phenomena such as bonding and tunneling.
• Atomic Structure
• Interpret the quantum-mechanical solution of the hydrogen atom.
• Explain the basis for the shell model of atoms.
• Demonstrate a qualitative understanding of the energy-level structure of multielectron atoms and the periodic table of the elements.
• Explain the emission and absorption of light.
• Explain the meaning of the lifetimes of excited states and their exponential decay.
• Demonstrate qualitative understanding of lasers.
• Nuclear Physics
• Explain the size and structure of the nucleus.
• Describe the properties of the strong force.
• Apply and interpret a simple shell model of the nucleus.
• Define and apply radioactive decay and half-lives.
• Interpret radiation dose and biological applications of nuclear physics.

Major Topics to be Included

• The Foundations of Modern Physics
• The Special Theory of Relativity
• Photons: Light Waves Behaving as Particles
• Wave Properties of Matter:
• Quantum Mechanics
• Atomic Structure
• Nuclear Physics